Stephen Holland - Multimedia Journalist

The Bowie Project #17 - Tonight (1984) David Bowie’s 16th studio album, Tonight , was released on September 24, 1984, by EMI Records. The sound and style of the record is mostly a continuation of his previous release, the hugely commercially successful Let’s Dance , although this album does add a more reggae influenced sound to the mix. The success of the previous record had a lot to do with the influence of its producer, the Chic bandleader Nile Rodgers, who gave Bowie a more commercial mainstream sound and was known as a guaranteed “hit maker”. This album however was not produced by Rodgers and as an attempt to repeat what made that record so popular it mostly fails, this record is seen by many, Bowie included, as an attempt to retain his newly found fan base without actually being fully aware of what it was they were responding to in him, it kept most of the same personnel, features plenty of cover songs and reworkings of old material, and creatively is a low point for the artist. I...

The Bowie Project #16 – Let’s Dance (1983) Let’s Dance is David Bowie’s 15 th studio album, it was released on 14 April 1983, by EMI Records. After the release of his previous album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) in 1980 Bowie began a period of musical collaborations and film appearances. He appeared on stage in productions of The Elephant Man and Bertolt Brecht’s Baal , he released the legendary track “Under Pressure” with Queen as well as providing the title song to the 1982 Paul Schrader movie Cat People , he also filmed leading roles in the movies The Hunger and Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence . For the release of this album, he cut ties with his record label RCA Records and for the first time in many years Tony Visconti did not act as his album's producer. After so much musical experimentation Bowie wanted a commercial hit record and instead hired disco producer Nile Rodgers to produce this record. Nile Rodgers is Chic bandleader and guitars who had scored numerous top te...

The Bowie Project #15 – Baal (1982) By the time we get to the 1980 and the release of Scary Monsters David Bowie was taking stock of his life and trying to think ahead to the future. As he was getting older and watching a new generation of artists and musicians coming up, he wanted to prepare for a life beyond rock n’ roll, he wanted to become an actor. He already had two major film roles, the alien Thomas Jerome Newton in the 1976 picture The Man Who Fell to Earth , a part he said he didn’t need to even act for because he was so spaced out on drugs he already seemed like an alien, and the WWI veteran turned male escort Paul Ambrosius von Przygodski in 1978’s Just a Gigolo , a movie which by all accounts was a complete failure. However, his appearance in The Man Who Fell to Earth was noticed by theatre director Jack Hofsiss who offered him the lead role as John Merrick in the Broadway show The Elephant Man . The story is based on Joseph Merrick, a real man who lived in the Victorian ...

The Bowie Project #14 – Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980) David Bowie’s 14 th studio album, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) was released on September 12 1980 and would be his final album for RCA Records, the label who had released all of his albums since Hunky Dory in 1971. Over the last number of years Bowie had achieved major artistic success with the release of his Berlin Trilogy, however those albums were less successful commercially and by 1980 Bowie had found himself in the precarious position where bands and artists who were inspired by that trilogy were actually out selling him. Low and “Heroes” , both released in 1977, were seen as precursors to post-punk and influenced artists like Joy Division and the Human League, while 1979’s Lodger’ s use of world music is credited for inspiring artists like Paul Simon and the Talking Heads. Those albums were made in collaboration with self-described “non-musician” ambient pioneer Brian Eno and were incredibly experimental an...

The Bowie Project #13 – Lodger (1979) Lodger is David Bowie’s 13 th studio album. It was released on May 25 th , 1979 and was the final instalment in his Berlin Trilogy after Low and “Heroes” which were both released in 1977. The trilogy comes out of a period when Bowie had moved from Los Angeles to Europe in an effort to rid himself of his drug addiction and was a very prolific time for the artist. The previous two records were highly influenced by German krautrock and the recent ambient releases of Brian Eno, who he collaborated with on all three of the albums. Lodger however moves away from the more minimal ambient sounds of those albums and moves into a more varied array of musical styles and genres including new wave and reggae. It features more accessible songs throughout and the album is split into two parts thematically through its lyrics rather than its music. Side one is primarily devoted to the theme of travel and side two focuses on critiques of Western civilization. Wh...

  The Bowie Project #12 - "Heroes" “Heroes” is David Bowie’s 12 th studio album; it was released on 14 October 1977 by RCA Records just nine months after his previous album Low . Under no obligation from his record label to promote his last album due to their perception it would be a guaranteed flop Bowie instead took a back seat and spent much of that year as touring keyboardist with his friend the singer Iggy Pop. After that tour Bowie worked with Pop to record his second studio album Lust for Life before then regrouping with his collaborator Brian Eno and producer Tony Visconti to get to work on “Heroes”. This album was the second instalment of the Berlin trilogy, an experimental trio of records that was preceded by Low would be followed by Lodger in 1979. Out of the three albums, “Heroes” is the only one to be recorded entirely in West Berlin. This album follows on from the experimental, art rock, and ambitious style that Bowie was exploring at this time. The major...